The leaders of a Gallatin nonprofit in charge of the historic Palace Theatre say money from the city will allow the 100-year-old facility to remain open after its roof was damaged last month.

The Gallatin City Council voted unanimously last week to give the Greater Gallatin $40,000 in undesignated funds that were set aside for community enhancement in the city’s 2014-15 budget to cover the cost of the work. The money will replace funds that the nonprofit was going to spend next year for marketing but instead will have to use for the unexpected repairs.

At-Large Councilor Julie Brackenbury, who also serves on the board of Greater Gallatin, said Tuesday the cost of repairing the leaking roof and two broken HVAC units “is pretty much wiping Greater Gallatin’s budget out.”

“The reason we’re asking for this is this is really to cover our 2015 marketing expenses because we’re having to take our own funds to pay for our building and our roof,” Brackenbury said. “But, we’ve got to get it done now, and if we don’t we suffer the cost of damages that are going to be incurred moving forward.”

Goodlettsville-based ProGreen Restoration LLC is expected to start work Monday on installing the new roof and cleaning the inside of the Palace. The cost of the new roof and the two new HVAC units, which will be installed the first week of December, total $33,549.83.

The repair work is not covered by Greater Gallatin’s insurance provider, which inspected the damage and ruled it maintenance work, said Greater Gallatin Executive Director Donna Belote.

While a leak in the roof had been patched more than a year-and-a-half ago, other smaller leaks had occurred in the time since then, said Belote. Last month, things went “from bad to worse” after several days of heavy rain and wind.

“There were major leaks to where the water wasn’t dripping, but it was a steady stream coming down in front of the stage,” Belote said. “We have two new subwoofers and the new projector screen in there, and if that stuff gets damaged we’d have to close.”

In the last year, Greater Gallatin has paid $14,000 of $83,431 in grant funding it has received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to upgrade the Palace’s projector from film to digital, add surround sound to the facility and restore the sign.

The grants, which Belote described as “one-time shots” at funding, can put a strain on the nonprofit that operates each year on money it receives from the city of Gallatin and funds it raises on its own. This year, Greater Gallatin received $40,000 from the city of which $8,000 was designated for marketing.

“(The grant matching funds) come right out of our budget and the thing is, when the board accepts our budget for 2015, I don’t know if I’ll have any grants coming in or not,” Belote said. “Even $4,000 is hard for us to come up with.”

Funding questioned

Despite the City Council’s unanimous approval of Greater Gallatin’s request, not every member fully agreed with where the money should come.

District 3 Councilor Jimmy Overton said Tuesday that he would rather see the money come from the city’s general fund instead of the community enhancement fund, which he added “is not to put roofs on and air conditioners on a building.”

“(The $40,000) is for marketing and that’s what we need it for,” Overton said. “If we need to pass this tonight to move it forward, I’m OK with it. I think if they can’t take care of the maintenance on it we need to do it because it’s an asset to our city, but let’s do it the right way because this marketing is going to be big for Gallatin.”

Because the money had already been set aside, it only required one reading of the council to be approved, Finance Director Rachel Nichols said. If members had wanted to take the funds from the city’s general fund instead, it would have required two reading and taken longer to be approved.

By approving the funding, Overton said other nonprofits could come with similar requests.

“I see what you’re saying,” District 4 Councilor Craig Hayes said, “because the next thing you know somebody else is going to come up here to ask to replace a roof or something, but if they are using that money for marketing for 2015 then that makes more sense.”

As for the Palace, which has been closed since earlier this month due to the maintenance issues, Belote said she anticipates the theater will reopen within a matter of weeks. A free family holiday movie will be shown on Dec. 5 following the lighting of the city Christmas tree.